UK Cospas-Sarsat Satellite Ground Segment and Mission Control Centre Support

The UK is a signatory to the international Cospas-Sarsat programme and provides a full ground segment and Mission Control Centre (MCC) capability through His Majesty's Coastguard (HMCG), monitoring for, processing and acting upon alerts received via satellites (Low Earth Orbit, Medium Earth Orbit and Geostationary ) in orbit around the earth to trigger distress and/or safety response activity.

The current solution was implemented in 2019. The Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) owns the intellectual property rights for its solution, and therefore until the UK is ready to procure and implement a new system, the OEM must support the UK's solution. A 10 year contract is being sought to extract value from the existing system before it is replaced within the contract period. The MCA is looking to initiate full tender activity for a new system in years 5-6 of the 10 year period.

This contract was let using the negotiated procedure without prior publication of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015. The contract value is $5,300,000.

A Voluntary ex ante transparency notice was issued, ref: 2023/S 000-011024